THE BRIEF

Anglia Ruskin University approached Education Cubed to help deepen their understanding of the postgraduate market. To strengthen their marketing strategies, it was important to develop audience segments and understand the pain points and motivations for each segment.

STRATEGY

We ran five one-hour focus groups, each with 5-6 participants, representing different pathways into postgraduate study, including final-year students, graduates, and alumni from various universities. We developed a flexible discussion guide to allow the questions and topics discussed to be tailored to the nuances of each group. The groups included a diverse mix of gender, ethnicity, and subject areas, with all participants either seriously considering or having already applied for postgraduate study.

WHY IT WORKS

This qualitative approach allows us to uncover critical insights into student motivations, expectations, and needs that cannot be derived from analytics data, demographic information, or assumptions. By segmenting the focus groups based on location, time since graduation, and the origin of their undergraduate qualifications, we identified both similarities and differences among participants. Given the small number of postgraduate students at ARU, this detailed level of analysis enables highly targeted recruitment strategies for future students.